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Avaya is seeking to take the human latency out of business processes through its new Communications Enabled Business Process offering, which combines the Avaya Communications Process Manager with Avaya professional integration services.
The offering leverages SOA (services-oriented architecture) technology to integrate Avaya voice applications such as conferencing with business processes executed with applications such as SAPs ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.

The Avaya CPM now includes an event processor that scans data streams to detect changes that could indicate a problem with a business process. Once detected, the CPM will kick off its own process flow to "go out and handle the situation," said Gwynne Wade, vice president of Avayas emerging technologies division, in Basking Ridge, N.J. Handling the situation can include notifying specific users, escalating their response, or contacting users and automatically adding them to a conference call.

"An e-mail that sits in an in-box can get lost. Avaya can escalate itsay, let your VP know you didnt respond to it, or they can create a conference call and get it to call all the right people. This is a direct connection with people," said Brian Murphy, director of e-services in the global development organization of Whirlpool, in Benton Harbor, Mich. Whirlpool, which is piloting several implementations, expects to see benefits from the technology across its supply chain, manufacturing and call center operations, Murphy said.
While Whirlpool is an early adopter of such advanced technologies, the rest of the market may not be ready. Most enterprises today are struggling to integrate multiple vendors IP PBXes and legacy TDM systems, said VoiceCon General Manager Fred Knight.
"Something like 60 percent of the new shipments going into U.S. enterprises is IP. That means 40 percent of it isnt. The installed base of [legacy] phone systems is enormous. People will look to see what you can do to leverage your existing TDM network," he said.
"A company could have PBXes from three or four different vendors," said Brent Kelly, senior analyst at Wainhouse Research. "Some of the [unified communications] solutions dont work across all these different companies products. If you buy a solution from Cisco, it may not work with full functionality with another PBX you might have."
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